Back in 1990 — before the spread offense had been invented, so we’re told — Houston beat TCU 56-35 in one of the greatest aerial duels of all time. TCU’s quarterback, Matt Vogler, threw for 690 yards and five touchdowns on 44 of 79 passes. Houston’s David Klingler countered with 563 yards and seven touchdowns on 36 of 53 passing (with four interceptions). Of course, Klingler was running John Jenkins’s brand of the run and shoot. Below are the scoring drives from the first half (hat tip to Football Mastery for the vids):

It’s funny – even in this aerial explosion, you can see signs of why Klingler was such a bust in the NFL. He has a quick release and is fairly accurate on the short stuff, but he doesn’t throw a tight spiral and has terrible footwork. Plus, you can see why all the Jenkins QBs had such huge numbers – teams weren’t used to defending the spread and allowed a lot of quick short passes that probably wouldn’t work as well today.

Deaux

Taking note on the differences in defenses of today versus then. Just looking at the first play from Houston, the cushion the corners are giving is crazy. It must be a good 10-15 yards. It didn’t take long for Houston and Klingler to take advantage.

It’s also funny how things don’t change much. Seeing Klingler looking at the sideline and relaying the play to the OL looks just like any Franklin team you’ll see in high schoool.

Watching the free safety rob the middle of the field in what looked like a MOFC coverage looks a lot like what TCU does today.

Teo

Tcu’s offense is…weird. I have never seen an offense so committed to going empty all the time, is it some variation of the run&shoot?

http://hiteminthemouth.blogspot.com Hit Em in The Mouth

I’d heard about this game and been looking for film on it for years, but now it’s already been taken down. This is disappointing.

David

Videos have been removed

Ted Seay

They’re back up today!

Coach H

This looks like an arena football game.

Check out all the early ’90s-style mullets running around in the stands.

ruffian

Great footage. The defenses, at this point had no idea how to defend the run and shoot. By chance, do you have any video from the game Klingler set the single game recor? I think it was 732 yards. One of the remarkable things about that record is that the opposing secondary, Arizona State, had two future probowlers….Darren Woodson and Philippi Sparks. Video of that game is scarce since it took place in Japan. Even though it was a regular season game, the event was called the Japan Bowl.